What do you think of らんま 1/2? I was really into it as a teen for reasons, but have been kinda hesitant to pick it up as an adult
It’s pretty classic Takahashi Rumiko. If you prefer the same plot with aliens, then there’s Urusei Yatsura. If you like it with fantasy feudal Japan then Inuyasha is probably the way to go, lol. It’s a tropey will they won’t they with lots of love rivals and misunderstandings. I’ve been on and off watching/reading it for probably the last five or so years and enjoy it enough to keep going, but not enough to get any farther than episode 30/book 5 in five years, so…
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What I liked about that series (reading it as an adult) is that it manages to have partial nudity (I don’t remember full nudity) without feeling like “fan service”. Mostly thanks to Ranma being in the same natural positions while topless in either sex, which felt really refreshing at the time I read it.
Otherwise, agreed, the plot is indeed typical of the author (and that period in general?). “Problem of the week” type, with very little/slow development for the overall romance. I binged the whole series in French back in the days, which made it a bit faster, though. 
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Somehow I never realized that Inuyasha & Ranma were by the same author!! (Been years since I read/watched either)
That definitely sounds familiar
I looked up diffs btwn the anime and the manga, and honestly honestly neither sounds like the type of thing I wanna invest time into at this point. In part bc of the way things drag out.
The setting for Inuyasha is definitely appealing, but I felt it was way too dragged out even back then
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The manga itself is rather drawn out so it’s not gonna help too too much, but I do love this website to help chop out filler arcs of shows:
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Not enough to tip the scales here (65 eps is impressive tho), but cool site. I noticed that Natively has all 161 eps in one season (that’s how it aired in Japan)… That’s a hard no for me as well. (I submitted a request to split it into seasons tho… 7.5 hrs is much more reasonable minimum than 67 hrs!)
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Yeah I mostly wanted to share the site. It’s great for going back to old 90s shows (looking at you, Sailor Moon) and getting all of the obnoxious filler episodes out of a (re)watch.
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I forgot to write up week 3 last week, and by the time I remembered the forums were in a state, and I didn’t have a lot of things to update, so it’s two weeks’ update this week!
Reading
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最弱テイマーはゴミ拾いの旅を始めました。 | L24
I made a bit more progress. I’m still not sold on the concept or the main character, and it being easy doesn’t do it a lot of favors. I think I’m going to try and stick it out long enough to get out of starting zone and see how I feel once it gets going a bit more. -
小説 天気の子 | L30
I finished this up last week. I quite liked it, although I couldn’t tell if the romance was underdeveloped or just very Japanese. Maybe a bit of both?
I’ve never seen the movie, so I’ll want to watch that. I can’t decide if I’d rather watch it with Japanese subs or get my partner to watch it with me (and thus English subs). At some point I’ll want to get around to reading more of 新海誠’s works (I have a bunko edition of 君の名は somewhere), but I’m giving myself a small break from level 30ish books for a bit.
Which brings me to:
Started
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四つ子ぐらし 1 ひみつの姉妹生活、スタート! | L23
After reading 3 level 30ish novels in a row, I decided to give myself a bit of a break/work on extensive reading at something around my reading level. Of course I’m incapable of just letting words go by without looking them up, but I’ve been listening to the audiobook at full speed and playing it continuously instead of line by line. I’ve been letting myself replay a line, but generally not pausing to look up unless it’s a word that I have no hope at guessing (a lot of child welfare type words fit into this category). It’s also been good Kansai-ben listening practice since one of the characters is from Osaka. I usually have no idea what they’re saying the first time, but can get it on the the replay -
https://learnnatively.com/book/5b9046476c/
I think I’ve decided to read along at book club pace to give me more room to read other stuff, which means I’ll probably just read the week’s section on Sundays or Mondays. same goes for https://learnnatively.com/book/2c1e37ec2e/ which starts today.
Watching
The low level no subs project continues!
Finished
- https://learnnatively.com/season/647947a8da/
I ended up being less charmed by the story as it went on, but still enjoyed watching the series. It had a mid-season twist/complication that felt more tiring than engaging to me since it reset a lot of progress earlier in the season. It was still absolutely wroth a watch as a language learning exercise. Not so sure anymore that I would have finished it if I was just watching for entertainment.
Started/Continuing
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事情を知らない転校生がグイグイくる。 S1 | L18
Oh man am I loving this! It’s the perfect amount of silly elementary school hijinks plus some heartfelt moments. This may be my top low level anime I’ve watched so far (it would be up against 可愛いだけじゃない式守さん S1 | L19 and in the 4 episodes I’ve watched so far it’s winning). It’s nice looking forward to my daily episode instead of feeling like it’s something I need to get done. -
しろくまカフェ S1 | L19
I’ve been on and off watching this since last summer, but I’ve turned it into my treadmill show and watched another 5 or so episodes this week. I honestly think it’s a bit lower difficulty than it’s sitting at right now since outside from some of the wordplay, I don’t have to pay a lot of attention to follow all of the conversation, even when minorly distracted by walking.
Other Stuff
I’ve stepped up my French listening a lot in the past few weeks. I’ve run out of content from my favorite teachers at their A1/A2 levels and am dipping a toe into some of their more intermediate content. It’s weird because even when I don’t understand everything I feel like I’m following things a lot more than when I don’t understand in Japanese. I guess that’s probably just a lot more shared vocab. I still cannot speak a full sentence (except things that I’ve heard people say a million times like “donne me in le commentaire” ), and I don’t know any of the nous/vous/ils verb conjugations, so it’s weird to feel like I’m almost ready for intermediate content.
But, oddly enough, it feels like my confidence in French has come at the expense of confidence in Japanese. Somehow I just finished three N2 level books in the past two months, but because they were hard it means my Japanese is crap. I’m hoping playing around in N3 territory might make me feel better, but honestly, there’s a lot of “well I still have to look up words here so I’m not even good enough for N3 books”. Which, objectively not true, but feels very true in my brain sometimes. 
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To me not looking up words means I’m not pushing myself anymore, so it stops feeling like learning. 
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I think autocorrect might have killed your quote Not sure what it’s supposed to be.
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I mean that’s the goal, no? 
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Hmm, so yes and no. For example, I can read most of 赤川次郎’s books without a single lookup the whole way through. That’s nice, it’s satisfying, but it doesn’t feel like learning. While I enjoy the stories well enough, it sort of feels like time wasting because there is nothing new for me there.
On the other hand, I started reading 聖なる黒夜 上 | L35?? and I’m looking up 1-2 words per page. That’s satisfying in a way because it means I’m actively learning new things.
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Hahaha oh no!
I literally have now idea how to read or spell anything in French, all of my experience is listening
Whatever people say for “tell me in the comments” or “put it in the comment section”
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I figured you’d say something like that… Tho seriously, I can’t wait to get to a point where I only have to look up 1-2 things a pg for like anything I want to read
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Ah, I see, sorry I really don’t watch French content, so I’m not sure that’s what they say, but “laissez un commentaire” is what I would say (or maybe “lâchez un commentaire” if I want to sound rough/edgy).
Ah, or “dites moi en commentaires”
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My only reference point is English (in which I have a very large vocabulary). Sometimes I don’t know words but can work them out by prefixes/word components. And I have that in Japanese with kanji a lot, so that’s similar. But I feel like I also have times when I can figure out what a word must mean in English based on context and I rarely if ever get that in Japanese, outside of some onomatopoeia words. And even those I’m usually only about 50% right when I go look the words up.
I know I’m progressing because there are definitely words that I remember needing to look up but don’t anymore. But even with “easy” things for me, nothing feels as fluid as something in English and I just need to be better about not comparing my native language and my intermediate level language. And try to channel more of your philosophy @cat
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Week 5 and the end of January!
Which means it’s time for …
January Unwrapped!
Japanese Stats
Reading 
- Read all 31 days of January
- 1366 pages read (419 book pages, 947 manga pages)
- 5 manga finished
- 1 LN finished
Watching 
- Watched 29/31 days
- 57 episodes watched (no subs)
- 20 hours watched
- 4 series finished
French Stats
- 31 Hours Listening Input
Somewhat hilariously, I didn’t mean to average an hour a day, but hit that on accident.
Week 5 Summary
Finished
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やがて君になる 4 | L22
Honestly, I’m not sold on this series. I just finished book 4 and I’m still waiting for the plot to start. I’ve heard that the end of the series is worth the slow beginning, but there are only 8 of them! I picked up the whole series last summer during a sale (back when I was newly enamored with how weak the yen was and buying things left and right). I don’t dislike it or anything, and I do plan to read it all, but I feel like if there’s a point it’s getting to, it’s certainly taking its time. I also think it’s quite a bit more difficult than its current rating. Maybe more like a level 25. -
https://learnnatively.com/book/c8253ca0ac
I watched about half of the Netflix show when it came out and really enjoyed it. I was watching it subbed and missed quite a bit of the plot, so I’ve been meaning to read the manga for a while now. I absolutely devoured the first book and am 80% done with the second. I’ll probably finish out the third tomorrow or the next day.
I have some feelings though that I’m hoping doesn’t leave a bad taste in the resolution.
vague spoilers, cw: body image, fatphobia
The story revolves around two girls who switch bodies, our main character (Ayumi) who is popular and beautiful and her fat and unattractive classmate (Zenko) with no friends, who somehow initiated the switch.
The manga does an interesting thing where it draws newly in Zenko’s body as really ugly, but over time the drawing becomes cuter, as well as drawing Zenko in Ayumi’s body as not ugly, but definitely evil/off-putting in a way that Ayumi in her own body was not drawn. The theme of the story so far is that the person that you are is more important than your outward appearance, but I’m a little worried about it sticking that landing. I find book 2 cute Ayumi-as-Zenko fine to read, but it was rough going in early book 1 for how awful she was drawn in a very “fat people are disgusting” way. 
Started/In Progress
- https://learnnatively.com/book/ab155a22e9/
This is a translation of a book we read in elementary school about a Japanese immigrant family in the 1930s in America (specifically, the SF Bay Area, where I grew up). Where possible I’ve been trying to pick up books that I really liked as a kid to add to my reading, and was a little surprised to find this one (although I guess it’s not that surprising). While written for children, the story talks frankly about tough issues, and I’m finding it interesting to revisit as an adult. I’m reading a physical book and trying to extensively read and realizing how much I rely on fast lookups in my app with ebooks, even for simple things like helping me parse word boundaries in complex phrases.
French
I was using polylogger to track my comprehensible input hours (as I have a vague goal of 300 input hours by the end of the year), but got annoyed that there was no data export and that there were some very simple stats that it wasn’t interested in giving me, so I copied everything I had and dumped it in a spreadsheet. Obsessed curious about my watch time prior to starting polylogger, I got my watch data from YouTube takeout and wrote some Python to get as best as I could the videos I watched prior to logging. As best as I can tell, I’m coming up on 100 hours of total input* (I should make that milestone this week), which is exciting and kinda surprising since this started out as mostly a whim last summer. I’m considering doing a write up for Reddit because I’m a fan of reading people’s progress. If I do I’ll probably share some highlights here.
*I technically took French for a year in middle school. I remembered my être conjugations, how to ask and answer about the weather, and “je suis un ananas” from the episodes of Téléfrançais we watched every Friday. I’m not including any of this in my input hours estimates
I suppose I should probably move my learning log out of Japanese and into all languages but that sounds like work, and we don’t have Natively for French yet anyway (
), so it’s not a big deal that this is hiding in the Japanese corner.
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Is there a typo here? Or are you calculating pages read in a specific way?
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Ah thanks for the catch. That’s 1366. Fixing it up top.
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Japanese
Week 6 brought to you by the letter 迷い.
I’ve bounced off of a bunch of media lately. While before I was able to find a number of low level no subs shows to watch all in a row, I struggled this week to find my next watch.
Stuff I tried
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桜Trick S1 | L20
Ugh. This show is the exact reason why I didn’t think that I liked yuri for the longest time. There is so much male gaze/fanservice that it’s hard to tell what the show actually is if you’re here for anything else. On top of that, voices were also a little hard to understand since everyone was constantly baby talking. I watched 3 episodes and that was 2.5 too many. -
三ツ星カラーズ S1 | L21
As far as I can tell this is a cute girls doing things show, but with a touch of absurdity. Seemed fine, but not what I was in the mood for. May come back, especially to scoop up later when it’s less work to follow. -
侵略！イカ娘 S1 | L19
I apparently started this series before on Crunchyroll before. I didn’t remember anything that happened but I do remember the art a bit, so I guess I did watch the first episode before. It was about as exciting to me as something that I would have forgotten that I watched an episode of. It’s got three seasons, but if I’m going to watch something with a bunch of episodes just because it’s easy I probably should just watch Polar Bear Cafe or rewatch CC Sakura.
After starting way too many series, I finally settled on:
- 干物妹!うまるちゃん S1 | L20
It’s about a high schooler who is perfect on the outside but goes home and is a total otaku slob. I don’t know that much about seeming like I have my life put together when I’m outside, but certainly when she’s at home it makes me feel so seen
For reading, I breezed through the final book of 宇宙を駆けるよだか 3 | L21. While my concerns from last week ended up mostly unfounded, the ending seemed very “let’s just tie this up in a clean bow” in a way that resolved the story line, but only just. I was hoping for a more impactful finish. Ah well. I’m happy I did finally read it since I’ve had it tsundokuing in my to read pile for ages.
I’m feeling similarly unsettled in figuring out what I should be reading next. I have the Beginner’s LN and the Children’s book club books, but I can generally read the sections in one sitting, so that will only take at most two day’s worth of reading. I’ve been reading a lot of manga lately which is still Japanese reading, but I definitely get the impression that the amount of new words to time spent reading is a lot lower in manga. That’s fine when I’m reading something because I really want to read it, but feels less optimal when I’m just trying to get my Japanese reading in. I also, somewhat paradoxically, have a lower tolerance for language ambiguity in manga. I’d think that because there are pictures to help me keep up with the story I’d be happier to just leave phrases that I don’t get alone, but it feels like the pictures are showing me that I’m missing something and it just bothers me.
I finally stopped 最弱テイマーはゴミ拾いの旅を始めました。 | L24. I snagged the first (two?) manga volumes for free and I think I’ve decided I’ll read those and if it feels like something I could get into I’ll circle back to the LN. It feels wrong to dump an easy LN series with an audiobook, but if I’m not reading it doesn’t help me any.
Besides book club books, I’ve kinda settled on a LN and a manga for now:
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ひげを剃る。そして女子高生を拾う。 | L26
The main character, is as expected, kinda insufferable. But I’m getting some nsfw slang that I haven’t seen before, so yay (). I knew going in that this wasn’t going to be my favorite read ever, but it’s ok so far, and an easy read. -
Piece 1 | L22
I’ve actually started this before (I think I got about 2/3 of the way through). I watched 3-4 episodes of the drama that came out ages ago and really enjoyed it, but was watching without subs so hardly knew what was going on. It’s definitely not a hard read per se, but the prose density is really high compared to most manga that I tend to read. Honestly, I don’t think I had the reading stamina to get through it before. There are 10 total volumes, so we’ll see how far I make it this time.
Annoyingly, I think that I’ve come to the realization that easier books aren’t keeping my attention as well. My most recently finished books were all around level 30, and while I was able to keep up, it felt like I was “cheating” since I was doing so many lookups to read them. But what I’ve maybe realized is that’s actually where my learning zone is and I should be reading to keep my interest piqued.
Double annoyingly, I came to this realization after I bought ひげを剃る。そして女子高生を拾う。 | L26, but it’s fine, it’s all fine.
French
I passed 100 hours of input this week 
Realizing how many more hours I need to get anywhere near the level I want to, I’m getting a bit antsy about content to watch. I’m kinda rationing videos from my favorite YT teacher as well as innerFrench (which is counterproductive, I know). There are a lot of intermediate YT channels that actually talk in French, but they do a lot of talking about French, which I can only watch for so long. So I’m trying to find some familiar kids content that I can add to my daily “study” video routine. I found about 10 episodes of Blues Clues dubbed into French on archive.org which is really unfortunate because what I’ve watched of it so far feels like a fantastic show to binge however many episodes they made of it. Well at least of Steve. I never could watch the other host. They have the reboot on Netflix and I suppose I’ll try that out when I get through the episodes of the old show that I found, but I’m doubtful of how long I’ll stick with it. I also started Pokemon this week, with subs. The dub and the sub aren’t a perfect match, but they’re close enough that I can do it. Ideally I’d like to have about 45 mins to an hour of more structured videos introducing grammar or vocabulary topics and then an hour or more of just tv watching a day. I know we’ll get Natively in French pretty soon, and what I have right now is fine for right now, so (as is my wont) I’m probably just worrying unnecessarily…
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